Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 107352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
After a moment of all of us staring at him, Luke addressed his mother. “What’s happening?”
“The fact of the matter is, you all are not the only ones seeing a therapist.”
“Nooo,” Luke said, drawing out the word, grinning crazily.
“Oh yes.”
Luke gestured at his father. “Tell us. Please.”
“Well, Dr. Jimenez says that whenever your father regresses to hitting or yelling for no other reason than his pride is challenged,” she said pointedly, “he must then lie down and make himself vulnerable.”
Luke got up from the table, walked over to his father, and stood over him. “So, am I supposed to kick ya in your junk to make you feel better?”
“You’re hysterical,” John said drolly. “Has anyone ever told you?”
“Oh, Dad, sarcasm?” He beamed down at his father. “I’m dying here.”
“It’s not just me, you know,” he grumbled. “Your mother must be completely honest now, all the time. She can’t sugarcoat anything. That’s what she’s working on.”
Luke turned to her. “So from now on, you have to say what you actually want for dinner? You can’t think about what everyone else would like first and then answer?”
She glared at him. “Yes, Luke, that’s what it means.”
“So, Nana, is it okay that I help you with Thanksgiving dinner?” Griff asked her.
“Ohmygod, yes,” she said, putting her hand on his shoulder. “No one ever helps me, and it’s exhausting.”
“That’s because you never want anyone to help you because you’re a perfectionist,” John reminded her.
“And that used to be true, but not for years.”
Luke crossed his arms as he regarded her. “How come you two always come here and never to Pete and Jenna’s or Rick and Brynn’s?”
Because I’d done my reading on the entire family before I showed up in Eena, I knew that Pete was his oldest brother and Rick was the youngest. Luke was the middle child, the peacemaker, the one who, from all accounts, had been overlooked. Pete had played football in college and was now a cardiologist in Aspen, Colorado. Rick went to college on a baseball scholarship and was now a farmer in Le Claire, Iowa.
She took a breath. “Luke, I really don’t think—”
“Be honest!” John called over to her.
“Fine,” she said irritably. “We come here because Jenna hates me and I hate her right back.”
Luke chuckled. “I knew it. Caitlyn always said I was nuts because she loved you and figured everyone else did too.”
“Kids,” she said, addressing them all, “I adored your mother, and I miss her terribly.”
This was all so good and healing, I just sat there and watched, soaking it up as Tatum ran over and hugged her grandmother. When Quinn reached across the table and patted my arm, I turned to her.
“This is amazing, Nash. You should be proud.”
“None of this is me.”
“All of this is you,” she insisted, and as I studied her face, I decided I couldn’t help liking her even though she wanted the same guy I did. She continued, “I mean, not Luke’s folks finally getting therapy—and dear God, did they need it—but you created the space where they could share this with their son and their grandkids. That’s pretty damn amazing.”
I shook my head.
“Take the win, Nash,” she advised me.
“And Rick and Brynn?” Luke prodded his mother, still asking questions.
Looking up from her granddaughter, she said, “Brynn and I are very different people, and we share no common ground.”
“She likes to garden,” he teased her.
“It’s a lot more than that, Luke,” she snapped. “All that farm-to-table business is beyond me. And the things she has them eating, all vegan, I simply can’t.”
“You’re saying an all-vegan Thanksgiving is not for you?”
“Her kids pull carrots out of the ground, dust off the dirt, and eat them.”
“It’s barbaric,” John chimed in from the floor, where Darwin was now lying beside him, both in the starfish position.
“Are they healthy?” Luke asked with a gleam in his eye, knowing the answer already. Brynn and Rick had three boys, ages nine through thirteen, and their family farm sold all manner of vegetables, as well as honey and cider. That too had been in the file.
“Yes, they’re healthy,” she said belligerently. “But going there makes me grind my teeth.”
I was betting it did.
“Brynn wants your father and I to work for our meals.”
Luke shrugged.
“I don’t see you going to Le Claire to visit,” she said sulkily.
“Why does Jenna hate you?” he asked, circling back.
“Because I didn’t think she was right for your brother when they got married, and I still don’t. She’s very materialistic.”
“But she loves him like crazy,” he reminded her. “And her kids.”
She was pressing her lips together tight but then said, “Yes, she does.”
His smile was beautiful, and just looking at him made my stomach roll.
“I’m loving the honesty,” he stated.
“I am not,” she replied flatly, “but it’s how this works now.” She glanced over at her husband. “I think you’re good, John. Time to return to the table.”